1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and a method for managing media information which is information relating to media for printing and applied to print processing using the media.
2. Related Art
In an information processing system including a printing apparatus, there are various media as the media used for printing, for example, paper, resin sheets, cloth, and the like, and there are various types having different characteristics such as thickness and surface conditions. It is required to adjust processing conditions of print processing according to the type of media in order to perform preferable printing with respect to various media. For this purpose, information (hereinafter, referred to as “media information”) which can be used to set print processing condition using some commercially available media is provided. As the media information, there are parameters relating to transportation conditions for transporting the media, parameters (color profile) for matching color, or the like.
Since new products for a printing apparatus and media are released on the market, existing media information does not effectively function with respect to all of these available combinations. To solve the problem, for example, in the technology of JP-A-2011-158962 (for example, paragraph [0046]), a database of the media information is stored in a web server to which a user can access through the Internet. Accordingly, a user can call up media information from a database and apply the information to the print process, and request for creating mew media information to an information operator, in a case where there is no proper media information.
As described above, it is possible for many users to share new media information by disclosing the created media information on the web server. However, the new media information is not supplied immediately after the request of the new media information, and the created media information may not be useful for other users. Therefore, in addition to specialized operators, if the media information is also disclosed to other users by collecting the media information created by users, engineers, or the like having a certain level of knowledge, it is expected that convenience is further enhanced. Meanwhile, other users do not have knowledge and information for determining the reliability and the usefulness of the media information that is disclosed in this way. Therefore, when the all of the created media information is disclosed, it is difficult to find proper media information; as a result, the media information that is collected is not effectively used.